As of 2.0, only attacks that hit an opponent will shift you toward Active Flow; blocked attacks do not contribute to Active Flow gain. Additionally, each character has attacks that generate more Active Flow points compared to others; capitalizing on this by hitting your opponent with these attacks allows you to enter Active Flow without using your Overdrive for an Exceed Accel.

+

As of 2.0, only attacks that hit an opponent will shift you toward Active Flow; blocked attacks do not contribute to Active Flow gain. Additionally, each character has attacks that generate more Active Flow points compared to others; capitalizing on this by hitting your opponent with these attacks allows you to enter Active Flow without using your Overdrive for an Exceed Accel. Similarly, attacks that start combos, especially counterhits, contribute much more to active flow than hits during a combo. The damage inflicted by an attack is not directly used by the game, as evidenced by hits that do zero damage (Such as during various throw moves) activating active flow.

Press A, B, and C to perform normal attacks. Depending on the current state of your character (standing, crouching, jumping), your character will perform a different attack. As a general rule, A attacks are weak and fast, C attacks are strong and slow, and B attacks are somewhere in between. Some characters, most notably Tsubaki, have follow-up attacks to their normals, which are executed by pushing the attack button again.

Normal Attacks can usually cancel into one another, generally following the order > > > . However, this is not a steadfast rule. Consult the Revolver Action section of your character's frame data for exact details.

Every character has additional normals by pressing a direction + A/B/C that have special properties such as hitting overhead, head invincibility for anti-airing, or simply being stronger, longer reaching attacks. For example, Jin's is a quick jab, while his is a standing overhead.

Drives are the unique abilities of each character in the game. Some Drives are attacks with special propeties: Ragna's allows him to regain life by hitting the opponent; Tager's magnetizes the opponent and pull them closer to him; and Carl's allows him to control a second character on the screen for tandem attacks. Not all Drive moves are attacks; instead, they power up the character or add a unique effect -- Rachel's blows a gale of wind that affects some of her specials as well as her opponent, Tsubaki's charges a gauge that she can later use to power up some of her attacks, and Noel's Drive changes the properties of her attacks during a Drive string.

Each character's Drive is very different and is explained in more detail in each character's page. Just like with normals and command normals, Drive abilities can be both normal and command inputs, with differing properties for normal and command Drive attacks: Nu summons a sword with her Drive, but the properties of the sword differ depending on the input. Nu's is sword that flies horizontally, while her is a sword that tracks the opponent and hits overhead; additionally, her air Drive attacks change the trajectory the sword is thrown at depending on the directional input.

Finally, some characters' Drive attacks have follow-ups, such as Nu's and Hazama's; in Nu's case, pressing a second time will fire a second sword, so hits once and hits twice, whereas Hazama can choose to follow-up his Drive attacks in a variety of ways to control his movement options. Again, not all characters' Drives function identically, so consult your character's wiki page for more details on how their Drive works.

Special attacks are performed by performing a special directional input + a button. These attacks are fancier attacks that have special properties such as invincibility or unique movement. For example, Jin can ride along the ground for a long range low attack by pressing . Special attacks typically do 5% of their base damage as chip damage even on block (unless the opponent uses Barrier), but some attacks do higher percentages (most notably Amane's Drills).

Each character's special attacks are unique and are explained in more detail in each character's page.

Distortion Drives (commonly called Super Attacks) consume 50 Heat and are an even stronger version of Special attacks that deal large amounts of damage or have other special properties like invincibility or powering up the character.

Each character's supers are unique and are explained in more detail in each character's page.

Distortion Drives are often excellent combo enders due to minimum damage.

An Astral Finish is an attack that will instantly defeat the opponent if it connects. To use your character's Astral, there are certain conditions that need to be fulfilled first:

You must have 100 Heat.

You are on match point (if you win this round, you win the match)

Your opponent's health is below 35%.

Your portrait will flash if you can Astral

Note that you CANNOT use your Astral in a combo if the opponent started the combo at > 35% health; if your opponent's health was greater than 35% before the start of the combo, you must return to neutral (i.e., end the combo and wait for your opponent to tech) to use your Astral. However, you CAN use your Astral in a combo if you started the combo with less than 100% Heat but reach 100% by the time you wish to use your Astral.

Astral Heats cost 100% Heat once inputted, even if they are whiffed or blocked.

Because of these restrictions, Astrals are typically only used as fancy finishing moves.

Command throws are a special type of throw that are performed with directional inputs similar to specials and supers. Tager's Genesic Emerald Tager Buster and Hazama's Bloody Fangs are two examples of command throws.

Unlike normal throws, command throws cannot be broken and they typically have other unique properties, such as higher damage, more start-up, and additional hit effects. However, there are restrictions in place: just like with normal throws, if you use a command throw while an enemy is in hitstun or blockstun (or 6 frames immediately after either), a purple throw occurs, which is escapable.

You won't be able to break a throw if the opponent throws you while you are attacking them.

Throwing an opponent in a counter-hit state will result in a Throw Counter. A big red X will appear when you are thrown and "Throw Counter" will show on the side of the screen. When performing a throw during an opponent's counter-hit state, the throw cannot be escaped. Throw Counters are otherwise identical to a standard throw, so it's safe to use throws as a punish tool!

If an opponent inputs a throw break (for example, inputting a throw break in blockstun), then they will be unable to break throws for a while afterwards. This is used offensively by faking a throw (and tricking your opponent to attempt a throw break), then instead making them block an attack before canceling the attack into a throw. The throw will show an exclamation mark with a red X overlayed on top of it and the words Throw Reject Miss! will appear on screen.

The most common example of this is to force an opponent to block a 2A, run up as if you're about to throw, then perform 2A > throw! If the opponent fell for the fake throw and entered a throw break, they will be unable to break the throw in the 2A > throw sequence.

There are some moves in the game that appear to behave like throws due to being unblockable and visually appearing to be a throw move, but actually work more like normal strikes. These can be distinguished by how they do not incur Purple !! marks if used in a combo or during blockstun, meaning you can use them in combos like most other attacks, but do not have 100% fixed damage either. Tager's Atomic Collider and Hibiki's Pulverizing Fin are examples of such moves. Scoring counterhits with such moves also gains the 10% bonus damage most moves gain, unlike throws.

Crush Triggers cost 25 Heat and are performed by pressing 5+A+B while standing and can be charged by holding the buttons. If the opponent does not use Barrier to block the attack, then they will be Guard Crushed! The amount of time they are Guard Crushed depends on how long you charge the attack, with an uncharged attack giving frame advantage, but likely no combo, while a charged one guarantees a combo opportunity!

Crush Triggers qualify as Special Attacks, which adds to their utility as a mix-up tool; since most normal attacks can be special-cancelled, players can cancel into a Crush Trigger as well.

Crush Triggers drain a portion of the opponent's Barrier Gauge if they are Barrier Blocked. The amount of Barrier drained varies from character to character.

Crush Triggers are also very useful combo tools and are used mid-combo. Some character's Crush Triggers force a hard knockdown, some ground bounce, others float the opponent very high. Whatever the case, they are all useful to help extend combos and deal more damage!

Press +++ while standing or airborne to activate Overdrive. Overdrive requires a full Burst Gauge to activate. Once activated, Overdrive places the character in a temporarily powered up state, which varies by character: Ragna's Overdrive enhances his life-stealing abilities, while Jin's enhances his Freeze abilities.

Overdrive activation is fully invincible.

This makes it useful as a reversal if you are not in hitstun (otherwise, you will get a Burst).

If activated while in blockstun, you will perform Guard Cancel Overdrive rather than Burst.

You can cancel into Overdrive almost anytime you can cancel into a special move. While this is indeed very powerful, cancelling into Overdrive cuts your Overdrive time by half, so use your time wisely! Unlike prior games, activating Overdrive while the opponent is in hitstun even while you are at neutral will yield an Overdrive Cancel and not a neutral Overdrive activation; jump-cancelling a move to return to neutral and subsequently activating Overdrive will not lengthen your Overdrive time.

Overdrive Cancels can be used mid-combo to make a combo unburstable and increase damage.

When cancelling into Overdrive:

Start-up is 3+3, the fastest of all activation times.

You will see the words "Cancel Over Drive!" appear on the screen when performed.

Overdrive time is halved.

Overdrive Cancels are also great for baiting Bursts! Bursts have 6F startup, so if one is performed at the same time as a Overdrive Cancel, the Overdrive's recovery will not be over when the Burst activates. However, if you counter-hit an opponent with an attack that's greater than level 2, the hitstop from the attack will increase, causing the opponent's Burst start-up to increase as well. You can use this to your advantage by confirming the counter-hit into an Overdrive Cancel to negate the risk of a Burst: if the opponent chooses to Burst, performing an Overdrive Cancel guarantees that you will completely recover before the opponent's Burst hits, thus countering the Burst.

Press +++ while blocking to cancel out all blockstun and go into Overdrive. This is a potent way to get out of a defensive situation and then go back on the offensive! Guard Cancel Guard Cancel Overdrive has startup 3+23 as well as the short Overdrive duration of Overdrive Cancels, but the sheer power of canceling blockstun into an attack makes this a powerful technique.

When scouting opportunities to use Guard Cancel Overdrive, look for attacks that have lots of recovery and then punish them with Guard Cancel Overdrive!

When using Guard Cancel Overdrive:

Start-up is 3+23 and is fully invincible. If performed after blocking moves with short recovery, the opponent will be able to recover during Overdrive's startup, so be careful.

You will see the words "Over Drive Raid" appear on the screen when successfully performed.

Overdrive time is halved.

Holding +++ while activating GCOD will cancel the activation directly into the character's Exceed Accel. While this is a strong option to reverse the momentum of a round, it can also backfire: as of 2.0, Exceed Accels are no longer "safe" on block (-10 for all characters except for Nu-13).

After successfully hitting the opponent with Exceed Accel, puts you in Active Flow. You may only enter Active Flow once per round, however, so if you've already triggered Actice Flow, using your Exceed Accel will not place you into Active Flow a second time. .

Base damage is about 2000 damage normally, but during Active Flow increases to about 4000

Minimum damage around 300 normally, but increases to about 600 during Active Flow.

As of 2.0, Exceed Accels are now negative on block (-10 for all characters except Nu-13); however, not all Exceed Accels are equally punishable due to pushback, blockstun, etc. An opponent can use Guard Cancel Overdrive on reaction to blocking an EA, allowing them to escape and punish the recovery. Be careful!

Players that don't use button macros (or play in arcades) sometimes accidentally perform a Crush Trigger or Rapid Cancel instead of Overdrive due to the commands overlapping. To bypass this problem, hold down A or B or C, then press the remaining buttons!

When you press a button, the game then checks to confirm whether all 4 buttons are being held down, and if so, counts it as an Overdrive activation. This means you don't need to press all of the buttons at the same time to go into Overdrive!

Example: Hold C, then press A+B+D

Example: Hold C+D, then press A+B

Example: Press and hold each button in rapid succession: [A]~[B]~[C]~[D]

While very useful, there are restrictions with this technique: it doesn't work if you Barrier when inputting buttons. For example, holding back + [A] [B] ~ C + D won't activate Overdrive. In fact, it disables activating Overdrive until all buttons are released. This technique also doesn't work for the first few frames after ground neutral tech and Emergency Tech.

This shortcut is very useful during combos -- hold down A or B or C, then press the remaining buttons for Overdrive Cancel!

Do note that this shortcut is specifically for activating Overdrive, not for using Bursts or Exceed Accels.

By performing multiple offensive actions in a row, players can go into Active Flow. Your Burst Icon, Health Bar, and Heat Gauge will gain a purple aura and the announcer will say "Active Flow" when a character enters Active Flow. When you are close to entering Active Flow, the message "Attention" will appear next to the character. Hitting the opponent with Exceed Accel also activates Active Flow (unless you were already in Active Flow or used a Burst earlier in the round).

Active Flow lasts for approximately 840 frames (14 seconds).

As of 2.0, only attacks that hit an opponent will shift you toward Active Flow; blocked attacks do not contribute to Active Flow gain. Additionally, each character has attacks that generate more Active Flow points compared to others; capitalizing on this by hitting your opponent with these attacks allows you to enter Active Flow without using your Overdrive for an Exceed Accel. Similarly, attacks that start combos, especially counterhits, contribute much more to active flow than hits during a combo. The damage inflicted by an attack is not directly used by the game, as evidenced by hits that do zero damage (Such as during various throw moves) activating active flow.